RECLAIMING LOST LAND

Reclaiming Lost Land is a project which aims to repossess Schiedam’s identity, character and cultural background through the activation of abandoned industrial areas. The scheme aims to give the site a new purpose whilst maintaining its historical qualities and provide a masterplan which can adapt to future needs.

The aim is to boost the local spirit and improve the overall quality of life for the people who live there and create a sustainable development which helps to keep the identity of the area whilst creating new economic opportunities. We plan to achieve this by improving public transport links, green space and potential public squares through filling in the gaps on the site rather than starting fresh. This way, we are giving the streets back to the local residents where better social integration can take place, overall creating a more enjoyable, healthier place for people to live and work.

As a group, we decided that the Glass Factory was far too valuable to knock down, as every Schiedammer can name at least one family member who used to work there. The Northern part of the site which we have called ‘Zone A’ has therefore been carefully proposed, we plan to keep a lot of the existing buildings which are situated here. As you go further down the masterplan, we have decided to demolish and relocate more of the existing buildings. The site has been split into two more proposed zones, these being ‘Zone B’ and ‘Zone C.’

CONNECTIONS UP-CYCLE GREEN ROUTE

Retain Relocate Referbish

WATER EDGE ROUTES & ACCESS BIOMASS

Concept Sketches Site Analysis

We have decided to retain the glass factory and nolet distillery as we feel these are too important to the cities heritage to demolish. The industrial units we have decided to keep and relocate are what we feel will bring value to the site such as the timber and metal construction companies. The strip of mixed-use and residential at the top of the site we have decided to referbish and add arches underneath to allow easy access for pedestrians to enter the site.

Our initial reactions to the research and analysis of the site were that we wanted to create a masterplan that worked around the buildings which remained important for the heritage of the city. We have decided to split the site into three zones in which will be connected by a green route that also connects to the surrounding greenspace across the river. Our zones will each serve a different purpose whilst retaining the theme of repurposing the abandoned land that was once a busy and important industrial area for Schiedam. We also want to create a route along the edge of the port via an elevated walkway which links back to our green route at various points.

Meet The Users

ANNE | 51 MARIA & DENNIS | 27 & 29 THOMAS | 33 JACOB | 14

Anne lives locally, west of Schiedam City Centre. She has recently gone through a divorce and her children have moved away to start their own families, so she lives alone. Despite this, her children visit her frequently and bring her grandchildren too, so they tend to visit the local park a lot. Going out and meeting new people is one of her favorite things to do, she is a member of the Art and Craft club which takes place every Tuesday evening. This is where she gets to see her friends and socialise with the local community. Day-to-day, Anne works at the Glass Museum as a receptionist, she has a passion for Schiedam’s rich history, therefore she gets great satisfaction passing on her knowledge to both the young and old.

Maria and Dennis met at university and have been together ever since. The couple have recently moved to Schiedam from Rotterdam, this is where they both went to university. The plan is to have children soon, and so they needed to move out of the city to somewhere quieter. Maria works from home as a customer sales advisor, whilst Dennis works in the city still as a financial advisor. Maria occasionally uses the local work hub to work when she feels like she needs to get out the house, she loves the fact you can just book a desk space the day before. Their busy schedules mean they like to relax after work in the week, but this doesn’t stop them from going for drinks and eating out for dinner at weekends with friends.

Thomas lives in Rotterdam with a couple of friends. He works as a senior process engineer at the biomass plant in Schiedam which requires evaluating the efficiency, effectiveness, quality, and safety of the plant. To get to work, Thomas enjoys cycling, however he will get the tram straight to the plant if he is running late in the mornings. The new cycle path and tram line straight to the biomass plant has made it much easier for him to get to work. At the weekend, Thomas uses this same route to Schiedam to help his housemate at the makers market who makes and sells their homemade gin. They prefer this makers market to the one in Rotterdam because it specialises in gin and local crafts.

Jacob lives with his parents north of Schiedam near Prinses Beatrixpark. He enjoys skateboarding, him and his friends love to travel to the new park at weekends. Jacob’s parents are much happier letting him skate through Schiedam now the new road crossing has been introduced south of the City Centre to the new development. The three of them also travel down to the new parks to walk their dog when the weather is nice, the green route is a much nicer walk around the glass factory than the old industrial estate. Jacob’s school also brings him and his class to the new history facility on the new development once a week which teaches them about the history of the area.

We created four different stories for users that would use our scheme. This was extremely beneficial to us as their stories helped us design most of the spaces, we could refer to them whenever we misunderstood how an area would be used. We wanted to cover all basis by including a wide range of age groups. We then used these characters to help explain our proposal, such as dedicating a visual to each character and writing a footnote to explain their view.